Some poultry such as turkey and chickens are often raised under restricted or confined conditions on turkey farms and the like. These turkeys are transported as poults from a hatchery to a turkey farm early in life. They are fed and monitored with a high degree of regularity and eventually transfer from survival curve to a rapid growth curve corresponding the time of meat production. However, a predictable but small percentage of the poults unsuccessfully makes the switch to the growth curve and are either slow growing due to defective genetics or due to external environmental circumstances. These animals must be quickly identified and exsanguinated as soon as they are recognized as not capable of becoming meat producers. Anything less would mean increased feed costs and higher poultry meat prices. Accordingly, there is a real need for improved methods of euthanasia of poultry and other small animals that are being culled at a production facility. Typically, the current most common way is blunt trauma with a bat-like device. This not only causes the poultry trauma, but can actually have a psychological impact upon the processor that regularly needs to engage in this exercise.
This invention has as its primary objective the presentation of an improved exsanguinating or euthanasia device that can conveniently be employed on turkey farms or the like to immediately terminate the life of culled poultry and/or other small animals, all with minimized discomfort and minimum psychological trauma to the processer.
Another objective is to provide a device which is inexpensive, can be economically manufactured, and which has minimal parts to decrease the possibility of dysfunctional operation.
The method and means of accomplishing each of the above objectives will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows.